Victoria Liu moved to Gainesville for a UF accounting degree. She graduated with her own business.
As social media grew popular, Liu started making food reviews of restaurants around Gainesville after her freshman year. Soon, she had created a social media foodie empire with 18,900 followers that has turned into a lifestyle brand ecosystem. Her business model incorporates food, fitness and fellowship.
In March 2019, she developed a food delivery app for university students called BYPPO. Her restaurant reviews developed into an Instagram account called Eat Gainesville, which has almost 20,000 followers. Recently, she started Moose Matcha, a Japanese matcha brand, and 616 Pilates, a social wellness club with group pilates classes, in December 2025.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: I read that you grew up watching your mom run Miami's largest Chinese store and your dad operating an international touring company. How did that entrepreneurial family environment shape you and where you are?
A: Ironically, while my parents are both business owners, they wanted their children — I have three sisters — to not be entrepreneurs. They wanted us to have a stable job, go to school, go work for a nice company. Starting my own company was a real shock to them, because they were like, ‘Oh, we put you through school. We didn't want you to struggle.’
They said they started their own company because they had no choice. As immigrants, they didn't go to school, and they didn't know English. So they started their own businesses to try to make money. I tell them that I am inspired by how hardworking they are, and I see how they can be so flexible with their own schedule. When you're your own business owner, you get to determine what you want to carry, what your prices are, who you work with. That's awesome.
Q: You earned your bachelor's and master's in accounting at UF. What's one unexpected lesson or skill you learned from that education that has helped you run multiple creative ventures?
A: Having an accounting background is fundamental for knowing how to run a business. Most businesses fail because they run out of capital. They don't know how to utilize the money they have.
It’s helped me so much in managing my costs, making sure I put money in the right places and how to read financial reports.
Q: Any standout UF memory that kind of planted the seed for your passion around food, community and what you're doing now?
A: I did a dual abroad program at UF where I stayed in Italy. I lived in Italy for almost eight months. That program taught you all about food culture, wine, cheese, pasta. That was my class, ‘Intro to pasta,’ ‘Intro to Wine.’ It's 9 a.m., and you're tasting all the different types of wine, and you're sort of tipsy in class. It's amazing. During that time, I was a freshman exploratory major. That program was one of the things I did to try to find myself. I came back, loved food and was trying to find good food around here.
Q: What is the story of BYPPO’s origin?
A: BYPPO’s origin is from a UF football game. I’m not proud to say this, but when I was studying undergrad, I never went to a football game. One of my friends took me. He's like, ‘You can't graduate and leave UF without going to football games.’
I don't know anything about football. It was a UF versus Kentucky game. I remember sitting there. It was hot. It was disgustingly humid. And I was like, ‘I wish I could get some Gatorade or some water delivered to my seat,’ because the concession lines are too long. I was upset. I didn't even like the game. I didn’t even know how to watch the game.
I remember looking into the distance and thinking we need to have some sort of app that can get food delivered to seats at the stadium. How many other people in this stadium are also struggling with the same issue? I thought about it for months.
I didn't start the company until March, nine months later. BYPPO is a combination of two words, baby hippo. And there's some stories behind it. Basically, when I came to the United States — I'm from China originally — there was this game that kids love to play, ‘Hungry, Hungry Hippo.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, why would they use hippos as a game?’ It's the deadliest mammal on Earth. I think the football players, they're so aggressive, jamming into each other. When they're hungry, they're probably like hippos. So I think of the hangry hippos, and that's how I made it. And I thought about that baby element, because as college students, we're kind of like baby adults. We're not yet full-grown hippos, if you will.
Q: Eat Gainesville started out as an Instagram page sharing local restaurants. What made you decide to kind of grow it into a full-blown platform, dropping merch and making it a community hub?
A: Instagram was for regular people, for me and you, and then Instagram introduced all these things for businesses. So it started out as a hobby. I just went around, took photos, shared things that I liked to eat around town. More and more, restaurants were reaching out, like, ‘Hey, I saw you came to visit. Let's do a collab or something.’
Then COVID hit. Businesses started to use Instagram more as a digital marketing tool. That change over time naturally helped grow the page.
I used to do this entirely for free. It was just something fun. I would go to the restaurant, record videos and give them feedback. At some point, I had 30 different restaurants reach out to me at once. I'm like, ‘I can't do this and work.’ And then I started to charge a bit more, and I realized that they're willing to pay because they see the value of it.
That blew up into people now having a brand identity with Eat Gainesville, so they know what it is when I walk around town. I've had so many people want merch and say, ‘I want to support you somehow.’ And I've been thinking of ways to make social media more affordable for local restaurants. A lot of restaurant owners can't afford it because they're starting out. A lot of the funds from the community buying merch goes towards supporting me giving out free promotion for a restaurant.
Q: How has the local dining scene changed since you started in Gainesville, and what are some gaps you see now that you want to help fill?
A: Girl, I've been here 11 years. It's changed so much. You guys are very lucky to have what you have right now. I remember coming to Gainesville as an undergrad student. Bento was cool because it was so new. It was so novel. Now, you guys have so many different coffee shops and brunch places. We only had Afternoon.
But as a city, Gainesville has grown tremendously. That has brought a lot of talent and chefs and, therefore, a lot of new food. In terms of gaps, there's still a need for more ethnic food. Some Greek, Peruvian, Latin, Brazilian and Chinese food. We have some, but we can do better.
Q: You've been featured on Food Network and Forbes. How did those opportunities come about, and what was the process like?
A: So those were two different things. Food Network was because of Guy Fieri. He was doing his “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” I got called in to be one of the local residents for Paper Bag. When they went to film for Paper Bag, I got to talk about their Cuban sandwich and talk about how they started. I remember when the Paper Bag Deli was a little shop, and they had just opened up. I did an interview and a blog with them. So getting to be on the Food Network was very exciting.
It was very nerve-wracking with Forbes. That was for BYPPO. Forbes featured me as ‘30 entrepreneurs in tech to look out for’ or something. Mine was one of them, a growing business, because it's very rare to have a woman in tech.
Q: How has that recognition impacted your businesses and opportunities?
A: Having that recognition obviously gives you credibility. I was a young woman back then. It was very hard to be a woman in tech and try to go out and sell your software. A lot of the time, I was in meetings with older, more established gentlemen, and they're like, ‘Who are you? This 20-year-old young lady selling me some software.’ For a while, it was hard to start a company. But once you got that stamp of approval, they respect you, so it was a turning point for me.
Q: Did that bring about any surprising collaborations or partnerships after?
A: I had big national brands collaborate with me, like Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, Bolay.
Q: Which local Gainesville spots or hidden gems do you wish more people knew about?
A: Okay, Pirates’ Grill is a hidden gem. I think most people don't know about it. Kasai Sushi, right next door. Then Sensei; it's literally around the corner from Spurrier's. But no one knows about it, because Spurrier’s is the spot where people go if you're in Celebration. Alpin is amazing. Superette. Bingo Deli. Flatfish.
Q: You've recently expanded into wellness with 616 Pilates and Moose Matcha. What drew you to these new spaces, and how do they connect to your food-focused brands?
A: Both connect to Eat Gainesville in different ways. I'll touch on Moose Matcha, since that came up first. I was doing a Gainesville matcha tour. I was going everywhere in Gainesville to try out matchas. I try out matcha almost everywhere I travel to: New York to LA to San Francisco to Miami to Orlando. That was unintentional research and development.
Suddenly, in the middle of this matcha tour in Gainesville, I'm like, ‘Man, I feel like we're still not hitting the spot. We have to do something about this.’ I had a friend who was sitting across from me. He's like, ‘You should start doing matcha. Stop trying to find the one. Go make the one.’
But that's so difficult. There's so many matcha strains. That got me to start doing some research online. I contacted over 20 matcha farms in Japan, and about half of them got back to me. I had to order a bunch of samples. I mean, I've never done drugs in my life, but I was looking at all the matcha powders, and I was like, ‘I look a little crazy, right?’ There were so many matcha strains and matcha powders all over my kitchen table. I was trying out the one that I thought would be the one.
Ultimately, this was the one that I picked: Moose Matcha. I wanted to bring Gainesville's most authentic Japanese matcha. It's grown in Japan, sourced from Japan, but it's branded in Gainesville. All the packaging, I do myself. When you order, I deliver it.
Q: And then 616 Pilates. How does that tie in?
A: 616 Pilates came from the fact that people wanted a more curated experience with me in Gainesville. They wanted to meet more foodies and get together. We got to balance it out. We can't be eating all the time. I'm a big pilates girl.
I go to the Yoga Pod and go to different studios in Miami. So I was like, ‘We have to tie in a workout and then get a local vendor to bring in something.’ You can learn about something local, exercise and meet people.
For our first event, we did a workout, and as a surprise, we had Sugar Baby Cookies sponsor. They are a local bakery cookie shop in town. They brought cookies, and people got to try it out. That was a way for people to learn about something that's local food and support that within a social setting. Events like that are a natural extension of Eat Gainesville.
Q: What's in the future for Moose Matcha? Anything exciting that you'd like to share?
A: Yes, of course. We've been doing some local collabs with cafes, so that more people can try it. We did a collab with Baloo’s Donuts, so they're coming out with a Lavender Moose Matcha latte in April.
Then, we have an exciting partnership with Voltaire on April 19. We're going to release four limited-edition drinks, all curated. I can't say too much, but stay tuned. Come to the event and sample a bunch of matchas. We've been working for weeks curating the drinks and making the flavors. It's nothing that you've ever tasted before. So if you're a matcha fan or trying a matcha for the first time, this would be a good experience for you.
Q: On a personal level, how do you balance having so many different things going at once? Do you have a team?
A: First of all, all of this is passion. I never feel like it's work. That's the best kind of job, when you can make something that you love. Every day, you wake up and you're like, ‘Oh yeah, I'm so excited to drink matcha. Make matcha drinks.’ You cannot have a better job.
When you're talking about what you want to do after you graduate, you can't go wrong. If you're into food, you get to try food. You get to take pictures with food. Whatever it is, it's so satisfying, so rewarding. I do have a team of people who help me. But a lot of what you see, like posting, I do it myself. I still show up. Every collab that I do, I go by myself. I'm behind the scenes. I'm the girl on the camera. Even with 616, I designed the flyer. They put it all together. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work, but it's so rewarding when people tell me how much they love it. That motivates me as a young woman in Gainesville building all these businesses.
Q: What are some challenges that you face that maybe a lot of people don't see or unexpected?
A: In the food space, Gainesville is slightly lagging behind in the social media space. If you go to any big city and talk to them about social media, they already know how valuable it is. They're willing to go above and beyond to make their social media where it needs to be. Gainesville is reliant on word of mouth. It's definitely growing, but you will find restaurants in Gainesville that don't have a social media page. That is shocking. It's like not having a Google page.
Q: What do you like to do to recharge, some other hobbies that you have?
A: Well, I love traveling. I love playing pickleball and tennis. I love taking my dog on a walk and spending time with my family. I love cooking, surprisingly. A lot of people have asked me to open up my own restaurant. But I think I love eating too much.
Q: What's your favorite thing to cook?
A: Asian cuisine. Thai, Japanese, Korean, Chinese.
Q: What's your favorite new Gainesville restaurant that has popped up?
A: Dunbar.
Q: What's the single best piece of advice you give to young entrepreneurs, especially UF students, who want to turn their idea or passion into something bigger?
A: Don’t wait. Just do it. Go for it. Some people are stuck in idea generation. Nothing is perfect because everything will evolve. The best thing you can do is start. If you don't start, you’ll never know.
Contact Summer Johnston at sjohnston@alligator.org. Follow her on X @summerajohnston.
